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INDIAN WAR - SPANISH
AMERICAN WAR US ARMY OFFICER'S WHITE CANVAS LEGGINGS –
VERY UNUSUAL SET:
Consistent with the type of leggings worn during the
later years of the Indian Wars and during the Spanish
American War, this pair of white canvas leggings were
likely an officer’s private purchase addition to his
field uniform. The brass uniform buttons against the
white canvas combine to make a very impressive statement
about this officer’s sense of style.
Very well designed, the
leggings are fashioned of medium weight canvas –
substantial enough to provide protection and not so
heavy as to impede movement. The leggings are tapered
to fit the contour of the calf and each is fitted with
what feels like a brass stay that runs the full height
of the legging. The stay is encapsulated within a sewn
pocket and the buttons are fastened through the canvas
and the stay with individual wires. All of the buttons
on both leggings are present, each being a regulation
general service brass button of the size used on uniform
cuffs. Each legging is fitted with a canvas strap that
passed under the arch of the shoe or boot, and each of
these straps is intact with no sign of shredding. The
leggings do show signs of use with minor soiling low on
the inside of each legging where the shoes would have
brushed the opposite ankle as he walked, and there are a
few scattered stains across the body of each legging,
but nothing extreme and nothing that would not be
expected from such a set seeing some field use. The
canvas is overall very strong with no tears, weak points
or signs of deterioration and all of the seams are solid
and intact.
This is a very unique set
leggings of the type well documented in period
photographs being worn in the desert Southwest during
the Apache Wars, and later on the tropical battlefields
of Cuba and the Philippines. (0918) $450
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